The situation of the Jews in North Africa, and the vocational training activities of ORT there, were reviewed here last night at the World ORT Congress by delegates and leaders from Morocco and Tunis attending the Congress, which marks the 75th anniversary of the organization.
The North African ORT program, it was reported, will be expanded, the budget being increased from the present $749,000 a year to more than $1,000,000 annually. The new program calls for establishment of new ORT centers, in cooperation with local authorities, in Sefrou, Fez, Marrakesch and possibly Magadore.
The living conditions among the Jews in Morocco were analyzed by Laza Schulman, Moroccan vice-president of ORT, while Elie Nataf, chairman of ORT in Tunisia, reported about Jewish life in his area.
J.J. Bowers, addressing the delegates in behalf of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, lauded ORT’s work and declared that “those who have organized ORT training centers might perhaps help the acute shortage among technically trained staffs in underdeveloped areas.” “I hope the time comes,” he said, “when ORT can provide such help, even if the help does not reach Jewish people directly, in areas where human beings are struggling to bridge the gap between the Iron Age and the Twentieth Century.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
